"Let the Truth
Be Told"
Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972, has become a symbol of
the viciousness and bankruptcy of the policy of the British ruling class of the
partition of Ireland and the annexation of the six counties. WDIE joins
with all those who are demonstrating on Saturday, January 22, 2000, to demand
"Let the truth be told" about the events of Bloody Sunday and to
bring those responsible, at the highest level, to justice.
The people of the north of Ireland, particularly the
republican movement, are to be congratulated at this historic juncture, for
achieving an important step in building the Irish nation anew with the setting
up of a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly. It has been achieved in the face
of the disruptive and divisive machinations of successive British governments
to derail it through all kinds of means. The government has been forced to
acknowledge the right to self-determination of the Irish people as a whole,
admitting that "Northern Ireland" is a disputed territory, and to
give practical ground in the face of the determination of the republican
movement, as well as progressive and democratic opinion, that the domination of
Ireland by the English bourgeoisie can never be accepted. The conflict in the
north of Ireland was born of the British government’s involvement. The
slaughter by British paratroops of the 14 young demonstrators on a peaceful
march in Derry against internment without trial has come to lodge itself in the
people’s consciousness as to how brutal, inhuman and unjust has been that
involvement.
Now that the society in the north of Ireland is moving out
of that conflict, the struggle for a united Ireland is taking another form, but
one no less intense and dangerous. The aim of the big powers, of Britain, the
US, the European Union, is to replace physical violence by what could be termed
economic violence. That is, they wish to dominate and economically rape Ireland
and the Irish people as a whole, to impose their conception of "the
nation" as opposed to that of the Irish working class and people. The
experience of the workers of Britain and other capitalist countries around the
world is showing that the bourgeoisie’s conception is to put all the
nation’s assets at the disposal of the financial oligarchy, to be utilised
for the making of maximum profit on the altar of being competitive in the
global marketplace. In other words, it is to destroy the national economy and
the fabric of society.
Whilst the progress towards Irish reunification is putting
pressure on the English bourgeoisie, it is necessary to recognise that the
government is also attempting to utilise developments to both militarise the
economy at home and facilitate intervention abroad, particularly in Europe, as
well as sowing all kinds of illusions that they are a force for progress. The
north of Ireland is one example where the government attempts to take credit
where no credit is due to them. The anniversary of Bloody Sunday is a stark
reminder of the nature of the English bourgeoisie. The government has always
claimed to be a "humanitarian" force, a force for
"toleration", in the north of Ireland, just as it today claims that
its intentions globally are for "humanitarian" reasons, that it takes
the moral high-ground. But the way governments since 1972 have fought every
inch of the way to prevent the truth of Bloody Sunday coming to light betrays
their guilty conscience, and exposes their "humanitarianism" as a
cover for cut-throat self-interest on the world stage.
The workers of England, of Scotland and of Wales must renew
their struggles, alongside their class sisters and brothers in Ireland, to
sweep aside the barriers to the progress of society, which the government is
still working might and main to keep in place. As in Ireland, so in England,
Scotland and Wales the government’s record is a failure to solve the
problems of society and prevent the peoples establishing modern sovereign
states. Let the working class and peoples of these nations unite to end the
class rule of the English bourgeoisie.
Bloody Sunday March, London, Saturday 22nd January
2000
Assemble 12 noon at Whitehall Place (Charing Cross or Embankment, London)
Bloody Sunday, Derry, Ireland, 1972
"LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD"
